The present invention relates in general to footwear and more particularly to an improved shoe and last.
The present invention relates to exercise devices, and more particularly concerns exercise devices for wear with, or as part of, a shoe.
Many footwear exercising devices have been proposed in the prior art for exercising the leg and back muscles. Examples of such devices can be found in the following U.S. Letters Patent: U.S. Pat. No. 2,769,252 by A. E. Monier; U.S. Pat. No. 3,472,508 by Baker et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 3,926,181 by Holcombe, Jr.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,573,678 by Lamb et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,681,114 by Lodispoto; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,934,073 by Robinson. While these devices may be suitable for a particular purpose to which they address, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that said devices would not be as suitable for the purposes of the present invention. Indeed, the devices of Monier, Baker et al. and Lamb et al. are all designed for purely therapeutic purposes, making it very difficult to wear such exercise devices throughout the activity of a normal day. On the other hand, the devices of Holcombe, Jr., Lodispoto and Robinson are designed for more prolonged wear. However, neither of the Lodispoto, Holcombe, Jr., or Robinson designs is able to be worn throughout the activities of a normal day with the extraordinary amount of comfort and lack of fatigue as is available through the present invention and still accomplish all the exercise purposes of the present invention.
The Lodispoto design comprises a solid wooden sole attached to a single band sandal-type shoe upper. As well as being inflexible, the lower surface of the wooden sole of this device is shaped with a long incline curving upward from a forward standing contact point with a floor surface just rearward of the ball of a wearer""s foot, to the forward most point on the sole. Such a forward incline by itself would cause a significantly greater amount of angular rotation of the plane of a wearer""s foot about the axis of the wearer""s ankle when walking, than that which is required in use of the instant invention. Yet, an even greater amount of such rotation is required via the sandal-type strap arrangement of the Lodispoto design, producing a flip-flop type movement between the rear portion of the device and a wearer""s heel when walking. Although sandal-type arrangements may be used as part of the present invention, the significantly flat nature of a lower surface of the instant invention allows for wearer""s thereof to accomplish the purposes of the invention with significantly less angular rotation and attendant exhaustion than that which is required in using the Lodispoto device.
The Holcombe, Jr., device includes the same forward inclining plane problem as the Lodispoto device, although to a lesser extent, due to the use of a shorter forward plane, a complete shoe upper and more flexible sole materials. The Holcombe, Jr., design is further severely limited in its application, since it is made as a purely exercise device without the intended purpose of being worn in more fashionable settings as a wearer of the device may wish to attend throughout the course of a normal day, were such continued wear feasible. The design of Holcombe, Jr., is an attempt to overcome the fashion difficulties associated with both the Lodispoto and the Robinson designs, by providing a forwardly inclining plane immediately below the sole of a wearer""s foot inside footwear of the device. Although the Holcombe, Jr., design is more fashionable than the other cited prior art, it is still severely limited in its ability to provide the great amount of fashion variety which is available with exercising footwear using the instant invention. The Holcombe, Jr., is further severely limited in its ability to provide a substantially hidden inclined plane of such an angle between upper and lower surfaces of the inclined plane as that which is available with the instant invention.
Although these and other such devices now in the prior art have attempted to address similar exercise needs as that addressed by the instant invention, they have failed to address both the need for such devices to be worn for extremely long periods of time throughout the course of a wearer""s day, and the need for such devices to accommodate an extremely wide variety of fashion, such that a wearer does not hesitate to wear the exercising device throughout all the activities of the wearer""s day. As well, such devices have failed to achieve the replaceable-cost efficiencies available to users of the present invention.
In view of the foregoing disadvantages inherent in the known types of devices now present in the art, the invention disclosed herein provides an improved exercising device for wear below the sole of a wearer""s foot and including a forwardly inclined xe2x80x9creverse wedge,xe2x80x9d and means for adjoining the reverse wedge to the wearer""s foot. Upon a closer review of the more detailed description herein, those skilled in the art will recognize that the concepts of the present invention easily overcome both the problems described above and other problems which have been heretofore commonly associated with footwear exercising devices of the prior art. As such, the general purpose of the present invention is to provide a new and improved footwear exercising device which has all the advantages of the prior art and none of the disadvantages.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a new and improved footwear exercising device for improving the condition and tone of the following muscle groups: gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, gluteus minimus, tensor fasciae latae, pyriformis, gemellus superior, obturator intemis quadratus femoris, psoas major, illiacus, rectus femoris, vastus medialis, vastus intermedius, vastus lateralis, biceps femoris, semitendinosus, semimembranosus, gastrocnemius, soleus, popliteus, plantris, abdominals, and the quadratus lumborum.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a new and improved footwear exercising device for use in improving the posture of a wearer.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a new and improved footwear exercising device for use in improving the circulation in the legs of a wearer.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a new and improved footwear exercising device for use in strengthening the natural knee support of a wearer.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a new and improved footwear exercising device which can be worn for extremely long periods of time without producing a fatigue on the wearer.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a new and improved footwear exercising device which can be worn with a wide variety of fashion.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a new and improved footwear exercising device which may be easily and efficiently manufactured, marketed and installed.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a new and improved footwear exercising device which is of durable and reliable construction.
It is yet still a further object of the present invention to provide a new and improved footwear exercising device which meets all federal, state, local and other private standards, guidelines, regulations and recommendations with respect to safety, environmental friendliness, energy conservation, etc.
An even further object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved footwear exercising device which is susceptible of a low cost of manufacture with regard to both materials and labor, and which accordingly is then susceptible of low prices of sale to the consuming public, thereby making such an exercising device economically available to the buying public.
These together with other objects of the invention, along with the various features of novelty which characterize the footwear exercising device of the present invention, are pointed out with particularity in the claims appended hereto and forming part of this disclosure. The more important objects of the present invention have been outlined rather broadly in order that the detailed description thereof which follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. For a better understanding of the instant invention, its operational advantages and the specific objects attained by its uses, reference should be made to the accompanying drawings and descriptive matter in which there are illustrated various embodiments of the invention.
Those versed in the art will readily ascertain, however, that the invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various other ways. In this respect, the details of construction disclosed herein, and the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description and appended drawings are for illustrative purposes, only, and are not intended to be limiting in scope. Those skilled in the art will appreciate, as well, that the conception upon which this disclosure is based, may be readily utilized as a basis for the designing of other structures, methods, and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the present invention. Said other structures may include, but are not limited to, those which are aesthetic in nature, or those which include the substitution of other materials as they become available, and which substantially perform the same function in substantially the same manner with substantially the same result as the present invention. It is important, therefore, that the claims appended hereto be regarded as including such equivalent structures, constructions, methods, and systems insofar as these do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.